00:00I was born without arm limbs and knee joints.
00:03The syndrome affects about 1 in 100,000 births,
00:05so it's pretty rare.
00:07I'm roughly 4'1", I mean, that's what I tell myself, at least.
00:11If I had knees, I'd be normal height.
00:13I'm always cracking jokes about not having arms and legs,
00:16and I know that when I go out, people are going to stare and look,
00:19but so what?
00:20I know I wouldn't have the kind of positivity
00:23that I have on life if it wasn't for this disability.
00:30My name's Colby, and I was born without arm limbs
00:35and without knee joints.
00:36The name of the syndrome is TAR thrombocytopenia
00:39with absent radius, and it affects about 1 in 100,000 births,
00:43so it's pretty rare.
00:49I'm roughly 4'1", I mean, that's what I tell myself, at least.
00:54If I had knees, I'd be normal height.
00:58Right off from the bat, I mean, I realized that,
01:00oh, I don't have arms and legs.
01:02That was different.
01:03I see myself as just a regular person,
01:05so I want to do everything that anyone else is doing.
01:10Is this supposed to be hot today?
01:12I think it is, actually.
01:15I'm fully independent to bathing myself.
01:17I'm able to cook for myself, dress myself.
01:20Adaptation-wise, I just have, like, a dressing stick that helps me.
01:23If I have to use something to reach, I can use a chair,
01:26or just figure it out in just different ways.
01:29When he was really young, they were trying to figure out
01:31how Kobe could go from line to sitting,
01:33and the therapist had no idea how to do that,
01:36and he managed on his own,
01:38and that was a big key to me that let him figure it out.
01:41We've always said to him,
01:42don't tell me what you can't do.
01:43Show me what you can do.
01:46I'm one of eight adopted children,
01:49and we're all adopted.
01:50We all have different, various backgrounds.
01:52When we first saw Kobe, he was absolutely beautiful.
01:56Couldn't ask for a more perfect baby in our eyes.
02:01He had the full-headed, curly hair, and he was, he was cute.
02:07Ooh.
02:09I think he was six weeks old when we brought him home.
02:12It was a learning process, but basically,
02:14we realized, you know, he's going to have a full life.
02:17He's going to do what everybody else does.
02:20When I was younger, growing up, in my family itself,
02:23I was never excluded.
02:25But when I started going to school,
02:27I realized, all right, yeah, I'm not like the other kids.
02:31And as a teenager, he, I think,
02:33basically just wanted to fit in with everybody else
02:35and not be looked at as so different.
02:39He's very outgoing.
02:41He's never let anybody define him but himself.
02:44Let's go.
02:45Come again.
02:48Larry, come here, buddy.
02:49It took time to become confident.
02:52Hey, boy.
02:53But I just, I accepted myself.
02:55Yes, I'm not the same as other people, but, I mean, who is?
02:58I know I wouldn't be in the position I am.
03:00I wouldn't have the kind of positivity that I have on life
03:04if it wasn't for this disability.
03:06I downloaded TikTok just for the fun of it.
03:10And I thought, eh, why not?
03:11Let's try one.
03:12Let's make one.
03:13And it exploded.
03:15It got like five million views.
03:17And I said, well, I guess that's good feedback.
03:19So I decided, well, let's start making more.
03:21It's just been going crazy.
03:24A lot of my videos are a lot of jokes regarding my disability.
03:28By making jokes and making these silly videos that I'm having fun
03:31and I'm accepting myself, I'm just doing it just to have fun,
03:34just to show people that I'm just like anyone else.
03:37It's blown up a little bit.
03:38It's got within, what, an hour, it's got about 2,600 views.
03:42Not too bad.
03:43Normally, if I get about 1,000 for the first hour or so each hour,
03:47then I'm pretty happy with it.
03:49I get a wide range of comments.
03:51I get ones that are not really appropriate.
03:53I get ones that are very nice and encouraging.
03:56You might be nervous to ask me in person.
03:58People are more willing to ask questions about my disability
04:01in the comment section than they would in real life.
04:04TikTok is definitely as your own.
04:07I think beauty is loving yourself and just living your life.
04:11Every time I go out, I always get like the stares,
04:14the finger point, and it's kind of got to block out that stuff
04:17and you can't really let it affect you.
04:19Colby's pretty good with this disability.
04:21It's like he doesn't even have one really for him.
04:24We're both a piece, yeah.
04:25A lot of people use excuses and he never does.
04:28People say, like, your brother, like, he's a big inspiration to me.
04:32He's an inspiration to a lot of people.
04:34When I look in the mirror, I see myself as me living my life the best I can.
04:39The biggest thing that I would like people to know about really any disability
04:43is that I'm just like you.
04:45It might take me a little longer or a different way,
04:48but I am just like anyone else.
05:04I'm just like you.
05:05I'm just like you.
05:06I'm just like an inspiration.
05:07I'm just like, yeah.
05:08I'm just like, where are you?
05:09I'm just like a little bit of things.
05:11And I'm just like, what do you see here?
05:13Where are you?
05:14I'm just like, what do you think?
05:15And it's nice to be in the way.
05:17This is really, how do you know what I mean?
05:19I don't know.
05:20But I'm just like, in this case I don't know about the color thing.
05:22So I don't know about the color.
05:26You don't know that there are any different colors,
05:28but I like them.
05:29I think that's the colors that are looking for.
05:30I'm just like, what?
05:31How do you be in the color?
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